As Modi government celebrates its one year of coming to power in Centre, the alliance of convenience formed in Jammu and Kashmir with PDP is yet to find its course in these two months of existence. As far as BJP leadership is concerned it was to clink to the new found majority to form the government and alliance with PDP was the outcome. In these two months what and where it went for the government nobody knows especially the Jammu-based BJP leaders meekly surrendering to PDP leadership on almost all the issues which formed basic roadmap to remain in power. Some of the permanent irritants which any govt in Jammu and Kashmir will find a bit difficult to solve the widening regional gap, the separatist factor, militant focus and long embedded feelings of lack of regional confidence. Adding to these some of the permanent features is the growing pressure of BJP leaders from centre which the present PDP- govt headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed would find it difficult to sustain and contain. The journey from now onwards for BJP in the Centre would different from the last one year. That period was a phase for saffron party to consolidate its gains, evaluate its strength and weaknesses, spread its work force base and to change the profile of country, which had remained non-responsive during the Congress regime. After rejuvenating and reviving now BJP will be shifting to higher gear for performance and accountability which could have some impact here in J&K also. The PDP’s appeasing policy towards separatists and militants and emphasis on development to narrow down the widened confidence deficit would have to be addressed along with removing the widening regional imbalances by giving Jammu its due share to survive. For PDP any move to dilute the party’s core agenda would be seen as sellout in Kashmir. The PDP position is much more vulnerable than BJP with Saffron player having less to lose than more to gain out of this game of compulsion if things fail to go the way the string pullers wants it.
